NRSC Sends Lawyer to Alaska to Help Murkowski Reverse Joe Miller's Victory; UPDATED

It appears the Republican establishment is still clueless. Via Allahpundit at Hot Air:Disaster.Sean Cairncross, the general counsel of the National Republican Senatorial Campaign Committee, is headed to Alaska at the request of Sen. Lisa Murkowski to help provide guidance to the GOP incumbent finds herself trailing attorney Joe Miller by roughly 1,600 votes?Committee sources insisted that too much should not be read into Cairncross? presence in Alaska ? only that the NRSC is an incumbent-retention committee and, as such, provides assistance when Senators ask for it.As evidence that the committee is not putting all of its chips on Murkowski, a GOP source tells the Fix that Rob Jesmer, the bespectacled executive director of the NRSC, spoke by phone with a top Miller aide yesterday ? making clear that if he wins the election the committee will support him wholeheartedly.Let me get this straight. After taking loads of abuse from the grassroots for endorsing Charlie Crist before Rubio?s campaign got off the ground, and with Murkowski already pointedly refusing to rule out a third-party bid if Miller?s (shrinking) lead holds up, John Cornyn and the NRSC are ? sending their top lawyer to help her out? And framing it explicitly in terms of retaining incumbents? Do they really have no idea of how bitterly ferocious the backlash will be among the Republican base ? especially, but not only, among Palin?s supporters ? if they?re seen as tilting the election to Murkowski? And how embarrassing it?ll be if they try to do so and fail and then get knifed in the back when she bolts to run as a libertarian?In fact, didn?t Cornyn vow last year, after the Crist debacle, that they?d be staying out of contested primaries from now on? Why should that promise apply only to financial contributions instead of to in-kind contributions like legal services too? What am I missing here?Unbelievable. These guys at the National Republican Senatorial Committee (NRSC) are completely tone deaf. To be sure, taking back the Senate this year was always going to be considerably more difficult than the House. But with inept decisions and leadership like this coming from the entity charged with that task, it's going to be next to impossible. Since when is pissing off the base a recipe for increased campaign contributions or, for that matter, electoral success? My advice is to contribute directly to individual senate candidates, and skip the Keystone Kops at the NRSC completely. I wouldn't want my campaign contributions being used to hire lawyers to assist Lisa Murkowski in her gambit to reverse the will of Republican voters in Alaska. In the meantime, it would be helpful to contact John Cornyn and the boys at the NRSC (202-675-6000 or email: info@nrsc.org) and let them know what you think about the way they're spending campaign funds that should be used for defeating Democrats this November.Update: (h/t jimr3) Ace has a different, more benign take on the NRSC's involvement here.

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